The Rise of the Phoenix
by HocusPocus7
Summary: When death note plays out in a universe where magic exists and a mysterious girl with ties to both L and Sherlock Holmes bring the two detectives together, would the tides turn in L's favor; or would the two detectives find themselves at odds with each other? The story only gets more interesting when you add a certain Napoleon of crime into the mix.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter Text**

"Bored!" Sherlock shouted as he stormed into the room.

John sighed in resignation as he came to the realization that getting any work done at this point was hopeless. Leaving a bored Sherlock alone was a really bad idea. The wall really couldn't handle any more bullets.

"No cases, huh?" John asked. It had been a few days since Sherlock had gotten any cases at all and even the last one that he got had been a really petty one and the fact that he had even accepted that one was a testimony to his desperation. "Maybe you should pick up your brothers calls. He seems to be quite persistent on talking to you; said something about it being a matter of national security"

"Everything is a matter of national security with him" scoffed Sherlock as he threw himself onto his armchair.

"Well whatever it is, it has to better than nothing -?" John couldn't finish before the doorbell rang. And the door opened a few seconds later to reveal a disturbed looking Lestrade.

"Greg, you okay?" Enquired John as the inspector really did look a bit too pale.

"Yeah, I'm fine John…" He said as he took a seat.

"I'll get you a cup of tea, yeah?" Asked John as he got up to make some. The inspector looked like he really could use some.

"Thanks mate. That would be great" Lestrade replied gratefully.

"So?" Asked Sherlock, now sitting up and looking at Lestrade expectedly. "You clearly have something for me. So out with it."

John shook his head in disapproval, but didn't bother protesting his friend's lack of compassion. Besides, Lestrade was used to it by now.

"I have been looking into a possible kidnap case of a seventeen year old boy. It seemed quite cut and dry at first, kid goes missing after school, and parents reported it to the police after he doesn't show up. Except the kid was magic" Explained Greg. John looked up with interest, forgetting all about the tea he was supposed to be getting as he heard the word magic. Despite not being a wizard himself, he had always been very interested in magic unlike most of the non-magic out there who cowered with fear at the very mention of the word. "So obviously, I get the case as I'm one of the few wizards in the department-"

"You barely qualify as a wizard!" Sherlock scoffed. "You have barely any magic in you."

"Hey! I can use enough magic to defend myself!" exclaimed Lestrade sounding outraged. "Besides, you are hardly one to talk-"

"Greg" John stopped him as he saw Sherlock stiffen. Magic was a sour topic for him. Holmes family is an old magic one and a famous one at that; but he had never seen Sherlock use magic, not even when their lives were in danger. Sherlock had never offered an explanation and he had never asked for one he obviously didn't want to talk about it. He figured he would tell him when he was ready to, but knowing Sherlock that could very well be never.

Greg looked up at what he had now come to know as John's captain face and sighed in resignation before continuing. "Well, as I was saying, the kid was gone. We were expecting a ransom demand as the family was quite well off, so it was expected. But none came. And today after two days of disappearance, we found the body." He paused and took a deep breath and looked Sherlock dead in the eye. "With the blood was all drained out."

Sherlock was quite as he folded his hands before his face in his thinking position. "I need to see the body. " He demanded after a minute of thinking.

"I figured you would." Greg said as he got up. He knew of Sherlock's aversion to police cars and correctly assumed that he and John would follow after him. "Meet me at Barts. I told Molly to expect you guys."

Sherlock was silent as he and John made their way to the hospital. As the cab reached the hospital, Sherlock all but shot out of it and into the building, not bothering to wait for John who sighed and followed after him after paying the cabbie. As he made his way to the mortuary, he couldn't shake of a feeling of impending doom that seems to be surrounding this case.

He didn't reach the morgue before he was met with a pale Sherlock (well, paler than usual) making his way back.

"Well, that was quick" John said, confused "You're already done?"

"I need to talk to Mycroft" Sherlock replied solemnly, not quiet looking at him. He didn't wait for a reply from John before stalking off leaving John to follow after him.

"Hold on, what happened?" John asked, worried now. Sherlock didn't seem himself and it was clear that something was quite wrong.

Sherlock didn't reply and just kept walking out the hospital and expectedly looked to the street and sure enough, there was Mycroft's limo waiting for him. John wasn't sure if he would also be welcome, but quite frankly he didn't care, so he followed after him.

Mycroft was alone in the back of the limo as the entered. He stared at his brother, his face expressionless as usual.

"You have seen the body I assume." Mycroft said to Sherlock almost nonchalantly.

"Obviously" Sherlock sneered back. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I have been trying to call you" Mycroft shrugged.

"Oh please!" Sherlock huffed. "We both know if you were seriously trying to get me to listen, you would have shown up at Baker Street."

"It's being taken care of. I actually have another case that require your attention" Mycroft said dismissively, Pulling out a folder and offering it to Sherlock

"I don't care about you taking care of it Mycroft" Sherlock said, ignoring the file offered to him. "Why is a pure blood dying of low priority?!"

"Hang on… A pure blood?!" John exclaimed. Pure bloods or elementals as they are sometimes called are immortal beings that formed the most powerful of the magical families. They are supposed to be very powerful wizards with affinity over any one or more elements. They are very few in numbers now after centuries of wars among themselves that had killed off a good percent of them. "I thought they were immortal. How do you kill a pure blood?!"

"Really John" Sherlock rolled his eyes looking at him. "Most pure blood that have ever lived are dead now. They don't age and die naturally, ergo they were killed. So it's obviously possible"

John felt stupid for asking but in his defense he had never heard of any way to kill one and as far as he knew after the wars between the old magical families, they had all signed a treaty saying they wouldn't kill each other which meant that they weren't killing each other anymore and so how could a wizard or a non-magic kill a pure blood?

"It's being handled Sherlock" Mycroft seemed to be ignoring John's existence and continued. "You need to stay out of it."

"Is that a threat?" Sherlock said incredulously.

"It's a warning dear brother." Mycroft continued calmly. "You are messing with some very powerful people. And as things are now, I'm afraid you really don't stand a chance."

Sherlock tensed at the implications of his words and said nothing as he opened the limo door and stormed off. John was about to follow after him when Mycroft stopped him.

"Dr. Watson" He said "This case is not like Sherlock's usual cases. Please tread carefully."

Even though Mycroft said this in a casual manner, John couldn't help but sense that there was real worry behind the words. So, instead of resorting to a snarky response he just nodded before making his way after Sherlock.

As they spoke, he hadn't realized that the limo had actually been moving but it seemed it was as he found himself outside Baker Street. As John walked in, he saw Mrs. Hudson make her way upstairs with a plate of cookies. As she saw him, she stopped and smiled at him.

"Yoo-hoo dear" she said, sounding more chipper than usual. "Have you met Lyanna yet?"

"Lyanna?" John enquired, frowning.

"Oh didn't Sherlock tell you about her?" She said, surprised. "She used to stay in your room before you came along. Oh, she's an angel dear, you'll love her. Come along now."

John followed after her, his interest peeked. Sherlock had a female flat mate? Now this he had to see.

"I've got some Choco- chipped biscuits for you dear, your favorite" Mrs. Hudson cooed as she entered their flat. John could hear Sherlock's violins screech before he got through the door in a way that he had only ever heard in the presence of Mycroft. Well, this cannot be good.

He stopped in his tracks as he took in the girl who was sitting, looking quite at home, in Sherlock's armchair. With her long scarlet hair, piecing blue eyes and pale kin, she almost looked like a goddess and so very out of place in their messy apartment; which was to be expected after Sherlock had been _bored_ for quite some time now.

"Thank you Mrs. Hudson" She said grinning at her, seeming not at all brought down by Sherlock who was sulking at the corner besides the window and occasionally torturing his violin.

She seem to suddenly notice John gaping at her at the door and smiled at him politely before getting up and waking over.

"Hi. " She said, offering him her hand, which he eagerly shook. "You must me Dr. Watson. Mrs. Hudson has told me a lot about you."

"Some of it good, I hope." He said, letting go of her hand bashfully after realizing he had been shaking it for longer that what would be deemed appropriate. "And please, call me John."

"John." She said, grinning at him. "I'm Lyanna as I'm sure she would have told you by now. I used to live here. Briefly though."

"So, how do you know Sherlock?" John wondered.

"That's not important." Sherlock said before Lyanna could respond, making her frown. "She's here about the boy."

"The boy" John asked, having all but forgotten about the murdered boy. "Are you a detective too then?"

"Well.." Lyanna said, hesitantly. "Of sorts"

"Oh you said he was a pure blood" John said, remembering the conversation that took place in the Limo. "But he's from a family of wizards. How's that possible?"

"He's obviously not their real son" Sherlock said impatiently, not even looking at John as he answered.

"You mean he was adopted?"

"More like took in for protection" Said Lyanna, thoughtfully.

"Why did he need protection?" Asked John. Feeling like he was missing something.

"He's not the first pure blood that has been targeted." Lyanna said.

"There has to be more to it than that if it's got you interested" Sherlock mused, looking back at Lyanna

"Do you know how many pure-bloods have gone missing in the past month Sherlock? No?" She half taunted him, a half smile playing about her lips which earned her a scowl from the consulting detective. "This is the seventh one."

Sherlock's eyes widened at that. His violin all but forgotten he stalked back to Lyanna.

"Blood from seven pure-bloods" He said, sounding almost excited. "You know what that means.. It's a summoning spell."


	2. Chapter 2

Matt looked at his screen through his goggle, not really paying attention as he thought about the case they were looking into. At first when L had asked them to assist him on it, he had been excited, but now he could see why they were really called in. This case was hopeless. It was really like looking for a needle in a haystack. There had been six missing person and one homicide so far. All of them seemingly unconnected; except the fact that they were all pure-bloods. Which is why this had been a high enough profile case to fly into L's radar.

He looked up to see Naomi Misora walk into the room, looking frustrated.

"I don't know how much of this bickering I can take" She said as she took a seat on the couch beside him.

He understood exactly what she meant. They were used to Mello and Near's constant rivalry on a normal day (well, mostly on Mello's end). But when they were on a case, they go on hyper drive, and it didn't help that they were stuck in this hotel suit with no escape in site.

"Where is Watari and L anyway?" Naomi asked him frowning. They had left a couple of days ago, with no real explanation. "You don't think he's looking for her do you?"

Matt knew exactly who she was talking about. Lyanna Gilbert. Being a Wammy kid, there really weren't many people who he could actually call friends there. But Lyanna was one of them. So it really did hurt that she had just disappeared on them six months ago. He knew for a fact that she had been having a row of sorts with L the weeks past it but she had refused to talk to him about it; and if the detectives recent brooding is anything to go by, that had something to do with his friend's disappearance.

"Ha!" They looked up to see Mello at the doorway, seething. "She can go to hell for all I care!"

"You don't mean that" Near said as he walked past him and sat on the floor in front of them, setting up his robots in front of them, not looking at Mello as he continued to speak in his signature matter of fact tone. "You're just acting out because you feel betrayed that she left".

Matt sighed in resignation; although what Near said was undoubtedly true, he wished he had enough tact to not say that to Mello, but then again this was Near he was talking about, he probably doesn't even realize he has said anything that would definitely set the volatile blond off.

"Listen you little _Robot!" _Mellow yelled mincingly. "You-!"

"Hey!" Naomi snapped in a no-nonsense voice. She had undoubtedly had a similar conversation with the two geniuses in the other room before accepting defeat and joined Matt to enjoy some relative peace and quiet but the chaos seemed to have followed her. "Knock it off the both of you. I'm in charge while L's gone and Mello I mean it when I say this, I'm going to make sure all of L's new cases goes to Near if you don't stop with this _endless_ bickering!"

"He started it!" Mello exclaimed like a ten year old.

"Well I'm ending it!" was Naomi's retort. Matt couldn't help but chuckle at the scene in front of him. Naomi really was left to play the mother in Watari's absence, she was no doubted missing him the most of all of them. Matt wondered if it would have been less chaotic if Lyanna was here and instantly berated him for his own stupidity. Chaos was her element. If anything she would have added more fuel to this fire but somehow he found himself missing her special brand of chaos.

He looked up from his thoughts to find Mello storm off in anger to god knows where.

"Matt?" Near asked, still seeming to focus only on his robots. "Do you think it's a coincidence that Beyond Birthday broke out of his confinement a month after Lyanna disappeared?"

Matt gasped in shock as he realized what his albino colleague was implying. Had Lyanna aided in the maniac wizard's escape? He realized he wouldn't be all that surprised if that were the case. Back when they were kids at Wammy, Lyanna was the only one that Beyond was close to. Even back then, Beyond was pretty much insane with his radical approach to magic. He had no reservations about dabbling with dark magic even at a young age, but somehow even when everyone else had shied away from him, Lyanna didn't seem to care about it. But as they had approached teenage, L had taken B under his wing, preparing his to be his predecessor, something that Lyanna had never shown any interest in. So that had left Lyanna at Wammy's House with them and she had not really spoken to B since, as far as Matt knew. At the back of his mind, he did wonder if L had intentionally separated the two and had taken B with him to keep an eye on him; it that was indeed his plan, it had not worked out so well because, as they years went by, B had gotten obsessed with dark magic and people had gotten hurt which is why L had to lock him up four years ago; that's all any of them were told about it. Matt remembered that Lyanna had been upset about it at the time and had a talk with L over it; she seemed to accept it and move on after that.

So was it possible that even after all this time, Lyanna had gone back to B and freed him for some reason? "I really don't know" He found himself, answering honestly. "You know how Lyanna is. I wouldn't really put it past her. She is known for being reckless after all..."

Near nodded but didn't say anything as he seemed to accept his answer.

Naomi on the other hand looked horrified at the discussion that they had just had. BB was a sour spot for her. They knew that she had met L and subsequently joined their team after the BB case that she and L worked on. They didn't really know to what level she had been involved in the case but did know that it had become personal. In her time at the Wammy house, she had gotten close to Lyanna. They had bonded as the only two women there. Even though Naomi was just as worried about Lyanna as any of them, she had told Matt that she believed that Lyanna had a good reason for disappearing the way that she did. But something told him if their suspicions turned out to be right and Lyanna had indeed broken BB out of his cell, Naomi wouldn't be so understanding.

He was about to reassure Naomi that they were probably wrong when his screen lit up with the signature gothic L. He frowned slightly as he felt a speck of irritation as he realized that the detective had managed to tunnel through his firewall. He hadn't completely made it impossible for his boss to get through but he had thought it would be harder than this. Maybe L was getting better at hacking.

"Hello Matt" Matt rolled his eyes as L's synthetic voice addressed his. He knew that even though the detective enjoyed accessing the camera while he talked to them, in this case he wouldn't be able to as Matt had the foresight to disable it; and as good as the detective was at hacking, Matt was better.

"Hello L" He said back in a monotonous voice in the same tone that the robotic voice conveyed through the system. He knew that even without the synthetic voice, L would have a similar tone. "What can I do for you?"

"I have been reliably informed that our friend is back in London." He said. That caught Matt's attention. "I need you to find her."

"Will do" Matt replied; and just like that, the screen was back to normal, L having signed off without any parting words.

Matt quickly began hacking into the street camera footages from all around London and ran his program to find if the face recognition could pick up his scarlet haired friend. She had never really been a fan of disguises (that had always been Mello's thing), so there was a chance that if she was in London she could be on the feed; well, unless she really doesn't want to be caught, in which case all this was hopeless. The Wammy kids, as a rule, were good at being invisible when they wanted to be.

He gasped as the program did indeed seem to find match. His reaction seemed to alert Naomi and she too came to look at the result, even Near looked up from what he was doing, although he didn't bother coming to them.

He played the footage and sure enough, there she was. His best friend who hadn't even bothered to give him call for the past six months was walking leisurely down baker street, London. She paused outside 221 and looked back at one of the cameras and waved, grinning cheekily as she walked in. Matt shook his head and let out a chuckle as he realized – Lyanna had just joined the game.


	3. Chapter 3

A storm was brewing as they walked further into the forest. The weather, in Sabastian's opinion, perfectly resonated with his inner conflict at the moment. He sighed as he looked at his boss walking ahead of him, carrying a vial of blood, humming softly; you'd think he was taking a walk in the park.

"Are we sure about this, Boss" He asked again, knowing full well that his master would not appreciate being questioned.

"Now-now-now Sebby! Have you no confidence in Daddy?" Moriarty tutted him, not looking. Though the tone was playful, there was a warning undertone to it.

They walked the rest of the distance in silence. Sebastian, not wanting to push it, kept the rest of his reservations to himself. He gazed at the ancient book that had been handed to him at the start of the journey. It was easily thousands of years old going by the strange writing on it, which he most definitely did not understand (though his boss seemed to). Once they reached the clearing, Moriarty handed the Vial over to him and looked at him expectedly.

"Well…" Moriarty said impatiently. "Get on with it. You have the grimoire, follow the instructions."

Sebastian eyed the vial distastefully. It wasn't that he was squeamish at the sight of blood. _Of course _not. He had taken a look at the grimoire and there was a lot of symbols he was expected to make and he was really not looking forward to having to use his artistic side that probably didn't even exist.

"Can't you just do it?" He found himself asking. At the back of his mind, he wondered how many people could get away with questioning the _Moriarty_. Probably not many. They did have a strange relationship after all, the freedom he could take (to an extend) was the reward granted to him for his unconditional loyalty.

"Helooo~" Jim replied in a sing song voice. Gesturing to his raven suit dramatically. "_Westwood! _You know daddy cant mess up his suit Sebby. Now chop chop!"

Sebastian sighed in resignation, accepting that he would have to suck it up and get it done. It took him a solid hour to get everything in place. He looked at his master who was uncharacteristically quiet this whole time. He had a calm thoughtful look on his face. It was rare to see him this way, all traces of madness wiped off his face, leaving behind only the look of pure intellect. The man was a genius, there was no denying it; it really was a loss to the world that it was always so consumed by madness.

Sebastian took a step back and lest his boss do the rest. He watched in awe as the Italian recited the incantations off in the strange language, the words seem to roll off his tongue effortlessly; watching him then reminded him just how powerful his master really was.

The sky seems to quiet down as the air around them vibrated with energy that seemed to get stronger by the second as his master continued. The symbols started to glow brighter and brighter until it was it was nearly blinding. Sebastian took an involuntary step back and found himself wondering, despite himself, if his boss did know what he was doing after all. But he quickly reminded himself even though James Moriarty was the very embodiment of chaos, it was always controlled chaos. He was always in control.

The whole area around them were blinding for what seemed like forever until suddenly it was not. Pin drop silence descended on them as everything went dark as Moriarty's chants came to an end.

"Well…" Jim said, a small grin playing about his lips. "That was a bit anti- climactic wasn't it?"

Sebastian didn't really know how to respond. He just shrugged and looked around. This was a summoning spell after all, and as far as he could see, there was nothing summoned.

"You won't find him here" Jim said, rolling his eyes, a sinister smirk forming on his lips. "This is just the first step my dear. We have opened the door between the realms and let him out. Now we wait."

Sebastian couldn't help but shudder as he watched his boss. This was bigger than anything that they had ever done before. This could tip the scales and he didn't even know what to hope for. He didn't know how the border-line insane Irishman's brilliant mind worked; all he knew was that things were about to bet really interesting.

"How do we find him?" He wondered out loud.

"We don't" Moriarty replied, with a shrug. Seeming to be done and turned around and started back, leaving Sebastian to chase after him. "Now we just have to wait to see what happened".

Sebastian sighed having realized that this was pretty much all he was going to get out of his boss. The Irish man was known for his dramatic flair after all and he really would enjoy his subordinate surprise when his plans unravel.

"Are you going to at least tell me who it was that you summoned?" He asked, trying his luck.

"Why Sebby, I thought that would be _obvious_" He replied, with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "A god of death of course"


	4. Chapter 4

John walked into 221B baker street to find a scene that had become the new norm for him over the past week. Sherlock was twiddling with violin while Lyanna was cradled on Sherlock's arm chair, her legs dangling over one arm while she leaned on the other with a laptop in her lap. Sherlock was still more or less ignoring her very existence and Lyanna seemed completely unfazed with this.

"Tea anyone?" He asked the both of them and looked up when he didn't get any response. He didn't really expect one from Sherlock, not with the mood he's in now-a-days, by Lyanna was a different story; she had quickly become a good friend to John, her charming and bubbly personality quickly winning him over (despite the looming cloud of gloom, that was Sherlock, ever present in the room), so it was surprising to him that she seemed to be completely ignoring him.

"Lyanna?" He called out from the kitchen; when he still didn't get a response, he came out with a frown to see that the girl in question seemed to be too immersed in whatever she was doing on her laptop.

"Lyann-" He was interrupted as he tried yet again to get her attention.

"Don't bother" Sherlock informed him, coming to take a seat on the couch, placing his violin next to him. "It's not easy to get her attention when she's working on something."

"What is she doing anyway?" John wondered as he gave up and headed back to the kitchen, having decided to just make the tea for all of them.

"She's hacking into Scotland Yard's case files" Sherlock replied nonchalantly staring at the ceiling.

There was a time in John's life when he would have been horrified at hearing something like that, but that time was before he met the genius consultant detective. Now he just shrugged it off.

"No more deaths then I take it?" He enquired as he brought the cups out for the two, leaving it next to them to no doubt be forgotten till its ice cold.

"Apparently not." Answered an irritated looking Lyanna.

"Done with the hacking then, are you?" John asked, shaking his head with a small smile playing about his lips as he considered how he seemed to live above the law now-a-days and was surprisingly okay with that.

"Yes. And a lot of good that did too" She huffed. "The yard seemed to have deteriorated further than I remember"

John was quickly learning that Lyanna and Sherlock had at least their patience level in common, if nothing else; though she seemed a lot better at hiding it (when it suited her) that him.

"There will be no more deaths" Sherlock commented, not looking up from his screen.

"How can you know that for sure?" Lyanna asked curiously and was met with silence. The ever childish detective was ignoring her yet again and it seemed to start getting on her nerve. "Really Sherlock? Don't you think you've sulked enough?"

A huff was all the answer she received. Shaking her head, she continued her work, seemingly given up on making any progress with the stubborn genius.

The flat was quiet as the two of them worked and John sat on his arm chair, drinking his tea in peace and (rarely available) quiet; but as expected, that didn't last for very long.

"Hello Mycroft" Lyanna said, having spotted him coming through the door. "How have you been?"

"Very well my dear" He commented. "You are a very tough person to find."

"Well…" she said with a shrug. "_I am_ here now. What can I do for you?"

"Would I be able to persuade you to work for me?" Mycroft asked, surprisingly direct as he leaned on his umbrella.

"Hmm…" Lyanna said "And why would I do that?"

Sherlock seemed to have given up ignoring the scene before him and was now glaring openly at his brother. John was surprised to see that Lyanna seemed to be quite familiar with the elder Holmes. He hoped she wasn't seriously considering his offer; he didn't imagine Sherlock would react pleasantly to it. Ignoring her existence or not, the younger Holmes wasn't going to let his brother take her away.

"I could offer you all the resources of the British government" Mycroft smugly replied. "I assure you unlike my dear brother, I'll actually value having you in our team."

"No" Sherlock said, his quiet baritone seemed calm but the rage in his eyes spoke volume. "She's staying right here."

"Be reasonable Sherlock" Mycroft scoffed "Is she to sleep on the couch? You don't even have a spare room to offer her"

"I don't need much sleep actually" Lyanna said, quietly, her tone taking a melancholy note as she continued. "I was trained to work on minimum sleep. I can go days without sleeping"

"Ah" Mycroft said in resignation, having figured out that he was fighting a losing battle. "By the way, Ms. Gilbert, I'm not the only one that found you"

"I would expect not" she replied, not seeming disturbed by the revelation.

"So you will not be returning to your old team, I take it" Mycroft said, his eyebrows raised.

"Not for the moment. Will that be all then, Mycroft?" She said dismissively, going back to her work without waiting for his answer. "Oh, by the way, your firewalls really need some work"

"We won't be needing all your precious resources after all, it seems" Sherlock said, a triumphant smirk emerging on his face.

"You hacked into our highly classified files?" Mycroft asked incredulously.

"Of course" Lyanna said with a shrug. "And if I can do it, I assure you my old friends already have"

Mycroft didn't seem happy at all happy with that revelation. "It seems like I have some things to take care of. I will be seeing you soon Lyanna." With the ominous promise, he walked out of the apartment.

"Ha!" Sherlock said turning to Lyanna with a wicked grin. "The look on his face was priceless."

Lyanna giggled at that and passed the laptop over to the detective to show him what John assumed was the classified documents.

"They have information on the restricted magic grimoires." Sherlock said thoughtfully as he went through the files. "There are a lot of blood magic in here."

"I would expect so. " Lyanna commented with a frown. "They certainly took a lot"

"I'll leave you to it then." She said, getting up and stretching. "John, I'm borrowing your laptop"

"Sure" John said, suddenly being included in the conversation. He was still a bit in awe of how his friend had done a complete one-eighty on his behavior to their new guest. They seemed to work really well together which begged the question, why did she leave to begin with.

"What are you going to do?" The detective questioned.

"I'm going to look for any suspicious deaths that might have happened after the seven were killed" she replied, already having retrieved John's laptop and resumed her previous position on Sherlock's chair.

"Are you still on about the deaths?" Sherlock said, rolling his eyes. "There will be no more. Seven should be enough for the most powerful blood magic; which is obviously what that was all about."

"I would like to make sure though" she said defensively

"You'll have to go through a lot of data" Sherlock commented, having already started going through the files she have retrieved for him.

"I should get to work then." She replied with a grin before getting absorbed yet again in her work.

"Wait!" John exclaimed, having only figured it out. "You're hacking into government databases with my laptop aren't you?!"


	5. Chapter 5

Lyanna frowned as she looked at the results on her laptop. After a week of research, it would seem that Sherlock had been right in saying that there was no more suspicious deaths and she was not going to admit it to the smug bastard. Something she wasn't too keen on doing at the moment.

"Did you guys have something to eat at all today?" John asked exasperatedly. How they ever survived on their own till now without him was a mystery. Maybe he should take a leaf off Mrs. Hudson's book and remind them he was not their housekeeper either.

"Oh, what's the point?" Lyanna groaned, burying her face in the couch.

"Oh I don't know" John replied sarcastically. "Maybe to not die of starvation?"

"Hmm…" Lyanna pondered. "Doesn't seem like the worst way to go."

"What happened to you?" John asked, frowning. The girl could be over dramatic at time but this was starting to become too much.

"I think I'm depressed" She replied, seeming to come to the realization herself.

"What? Because the murders stopped?" John asked incredulously.

"More like because I'm right" Snorted Sherlock from his make shift lab where he was doing some experiments on a severed finger.

Lyanna scowled at the said detective before going back to her brooding with a huff.

"Try to survive till I get back then guys" John said with a sigh as he decided to give up and shrugged into his coat to leave for work.

"Wait" Lyanna said as she got up, suddenly alert. "You're leaving? Where?"

"I do have a job you know. As a doctor. They don't call me Dr. Watson for nothing"

"Can I come with you?"

"What? No!"

"Please? I'm bored!" Lyanna whined.

"How can you be bored here with me here?" Sherlock asked, taking offence. "Besides, I need you here"

"Whatever for?" she enquired, suspiciously.

"I'm observing the effectiveness of magic to restore decay on corpse. You are to provide the magic of course"

"No no no… Sherlock no. Not this again!" She groaned into the arm of the couch. "I'm not going to play your Lab assistant again. If you want magic to happen you do it."

"But I don't wasn't to" He pouted.

"Wait." John said, confused. "You're a wizard? And Sherlock can do magic? He's never done magic before!"

"Yes and yes" Lyanna informed him.

John noticed that she had conveniently left out the last part of the question and was going to call her out on the same when she got up and grabbed him and started to rush out before either he or Sherlock could protest any further.

"I'll do all the magic you want when we get back Sherly, I promise!" She called back to him in response to his yelled protest. "I really do need to get out of the flat before I go mad."

With that she dragged him out, their arms linked as they made their way out.

"Now, how are we getting to your clinic?" She asked, coming to a stop, having realized she has no idea where to go.

"I usually take the tube"

"Nonsense. The tube is too over crowded. We'll take the cab." She informed him before hailing one just like that. John shook his head as he followed her into the car.

"Since when can Sherlock do magic again?" he asked her once he told the cabbie their destination. He was determined to get an answer and not that she was trapped in here with him, it would be difficult for her to deflect.

"He could always do magic" She said in a soft, melancholic tone. "A little too well actually. Magic is hard to control John. There was an incident a long time ago when he couldn't control it and someone got hurt. It's not really my story to tell."

John nodded, accepting this answer.

"The real question is…" Lyanna continues, a mischievous smirk playing about her lips. "Why do you have this job when you clearly hate it so much?

"I do have bills to pay you know!"

"Oh please! You're telling me the countless cases that Sherlock and you solve don't put enough money on the table?"

John was a bit shocked to hear her imply that he had anything to do with the case solving other that awe at Sherlock's brilliant. After all the time he had spent with the brilliant detective was leaving an inferiority complex in its wake. She got out of the cab and paid the cabbie before John could protest.

"Relax John." She said with a grin. "You don't have to feel bad about sticking me with the bills. I'm loaded "

"Really?" John asked, curious. He realized that he didn't really what the girl did for a living. Then again, for all he knew, she could have come from money; she certainly gave off that air.

"I freelance a lot." She replied to his unanswered question. "Most of them pay quite well."

John realized that Lyanna had actually given him very less information with her answer. The girl seemed to be a master at twisting words. They made their way into the clinic. John felt guilty as he saw the surprise on the receptionist's face as he walked in. He really shouldn't be neglecting his duties too much; there would be only so much Sarah would turn a blind eye to before actually firing him and then he would really be left to become Sherlock's assistant. He felt himself shudder at the very thought.

"Oh hello John" Sarah said as she saw them. She gazed at Lyanna as she noticed her with him and gave her a polite smile as she waited for the doctor to make introduction.

"Hey Sarah, this is Lyanna a friend of mine. She came along with me to…" He trailed off a as he realized that he had no clue why the girl had actually tagged along with him. He couldn't very well say she got bored and decided to come along with him.

"I hope you don't mind Sarah" She thankfully took over for him. "John was kind enough to let me come with him and observe when I mentioned to him that I'm a bit of a medic myself. Actually I'm into healing magic."

"Oh really?" Sarah seemed fascinated. "You're a wizard? I've actually read a lot about healing magic myself. Of course I wouldn't be able to perform any myself, but I have dabbled with some potions and such." She finished sheepishly.

"I would be happy to show you sometime if you're interested." Lyanna offered with a gentle smile.

"Really? That would be wonderful!" Sarah's eyes seemed to twinkle. "I have some patients waiting. Maybe I could take you up on the offer sometime?"

"Sure" Lyanna said, waving to the doctor as she hurried off to her appointment.

"Well" John said, admiring how the scarlet girl seemed to make everyone comfortable around her. Gone was the spoilt child he had left the flat with and in front of him was a charming young lady. There seemed to be more layers to her than he thought. "You make friends easily"

"I know right?" She exclaimed with a laugh as she followed behind him and casually dragged a seat over to his chair before casually plopping down on it. "So this is why you still work here"

"Sorry?" John asked, visibly confused.

"Your little doctor friend" She said with a smirk. "You like her don't you?"

John went pink as he stuttered out. "Wha- What do you mean? I don't still like her! I mean we went out but then we decided it didn't work out. We're just friends now."

"Oh you poor thing! You got dumped!"

"No I didn't! It was mutual!"

"Uh-huh sure." She agreed with a small knowing smirk. "It was because of Sherly wasn't it?"

"What! Why does everyone keep implying that? I'm not gay!"

"I don't know what you're talking about Johnny" Lyanna raised her hands in defense. "All I meant is that the idiot somehow scared her off. I have no idea where all that came from."

"Oh well, it's just that…" John stammered on, now completely embraced. "You know what, never mind".

"Oh come now Johnny" She said teasingly. "You can tell me if there is something going on."

"Oh for god's sake!"

John was saved any further torture as the receptionist came into inform him that his patient has arrived. The rest of the day passed with usual boring cases of flu and cough. The most interesting thing that happened was when a kid threw up on John' shoes (much to Lyanna's amusement). She was quiet for the most part of the day, sitting quietly by John's side, often seeming to get lost in her thoughts. She did seem to enjoy talking to the children that came in to see him. He noticed that the girl was surprisingly good with kids. This was something that he didn't expect as the girl was a lot like the consulting detective (who was famously horrible with kids).

Lyanna's phone buzzed to indicate an incoming message and John watched as her face went dark as she read it. The scowl looked wrong on her gentle features.

"Something wrong?"

"Looks like I have something to do today after all Doc" she said with a sigh. John was surprised that the serious tone in her voice as she got up. "I'll see you back at the flat yeah?"

Lyanna didn't wait for a reply as she left the perplexed doctor behind and made her way out of the clinic. She didn't hail a cab this time but continued walking down the road deep in thought. She took out her phone again and looked at the message

_Going to keep me waiting for long Princess? You know I'm not known for my patience._

She sighed and she pocked her phone and turned into a dark alley. If she were to go and meet him, she had to shake off the tail. A smirk adored her face as she started to pick up speed as she dashed through the dark alley. Her eyes lit with a barely noticeable glow as the magic sored through her body as she channeled them to her feet and before long she was moving at inhuman speed. There was only one person she knew that could match her speed and he was reasonably certain that he would be too busy to actually follow her. She soundlessly leapt from building to building till she was in front of a motel that looked deserted. She walked through with familiarity and stopped outside a door and sighed deeply before turning the handle with certainty that it wouldn't be locked. After all, she was expected.

The door opened to reveal a room shrouded in darkness. In the pitch dark, a pair of eyes could be made out as it shone with the color of blood. As the light entered the room, the sinister smile on the man's face that was now visible was somehow more chilling. Lyanna somehow didn't seem disturbed at all by the man as she casually walked in and switched on the lights.

"I know you like the theatrics B" She said as she took a seat at the foot of the bead and took in the man sitting on the chair, unmoved. "But isn't all this a bit too gloomy?"

"Ah my dear Princess" He replied with a chuckle before getting up and slowly making his way to the girl. He stopped inches from her before bending down and placing his forefinger under her chin to slightly tilt her face up so her face was barely an inch from his. At this distance, he could make out the specs of gold in her crystal blue eyes and it was truly mesmerizing to him . She could feel his breath on her lips as he continued. "I missed you A".


	6. Chapter 6

"I missed you A"

Lyanna felt her heart skit a beat as she heard the name after a long time. She held his gaze for what seemed like a long time before looking away and getting up abruptly, feeling the need to put some space in between them. "No one calls me that anymore B"

"Would you prefer princess then?" He asked with a smirk, settling down on the bed she vacated.

"I go by Lyanna now." She said, wiggling her nose at the offensive nickname.

"Ah" He said, amusement coloring his eyes as it flickered to her forehead. "I suppose that is kind of your name."

"Hmm…" She agreed

"So, what's our dear Lollipop up to?" He asked with a sneer. "I would have thought he would find me by now."

"I think he's a bit busy the moment. Besides, I have some help in keeping you off the radar"

"Oh?" He seemed interested.

"Mycroft Holmes seems quiet interested in getting to the bottom of the whole mess that is happening." She said. "He's desperate to get to it before our dear friends. Desperate enough to hide a serial killer if that's what it takes." She finished with a glare to the serial killer in question.

"You're not going to let that go are you?" He groaned, falling back into the bed. "And seriously? My freedom is in _Mycroft Holmes's_ hands?!"

"You don't really have much of an option at this point BB" She said with a shrug.

"Wait." He said, eyeing her sharply. "If you're back in contact with Mycroft Holmes, I bet you've seen him too haven't you?"

"Yes, I've seen Sherlock" she sighed. Beyond's eyes darkened at the mention the detective's name.

"You should stay away from him. He's going to bring you trouble" he insisted.

"Oh really!" Lyanna snorted. "Do tell me you see the irony in those words coming out of your mouth!""

"I'm serious Princess" He said with a scowl. "You know what happened the last time. He's not worth the trouble. Besides, don't you think it would be safer for him too if you just left him out of this whole mess?

"It's a bit too late for that, I'm afraid" She said as she sat down next to the ma, looking defeated. "He's caught his eyes. It doesn't matter if I leave him alone or not. He's already a part of this mess.

"Of course he did" Beyond scoffed. "That brat is a magnet for trouble."

"I suppose he has been" she said, with a small adoring smile that beyond didn't seem too pleased about.

"You're sure this is his doing though?"

"Reasonably sure. I think it was a summoning magic that he performed. Not sure what was summoned though."

"It's all calm now though, isn't it?"

"The calm before the storm that is sure to be coming now"

"So how long am I supposed to be holed up here anyway?" he asked her with a scowl.

"I don't think it will be long now. As soon as we have a lead, we'll follow it. Meanwhile, stay low for now B. If you have to move you know how to reach me. Don't get caught not. If you do, he'll make sure I won't be able to get to you this time."

"Lollypop never did like to share you did he?" He said with a mischievous smirk. "Maybe he was jealous that you loved me more."

It was evening by the time John finished his shift at the clinic and made his way to the flat. He had reached the door when he noticed Lyanna get out of the cab.

"Where did you go off to?" John enquired.

"Would you believe me if I had an irresistible urge to get an ice-cream?" She asked, grinning back at him.

"No" He replied, eyes narrowed at the girl.

"Good for you John!" She said with a laugh as she made her was past him, leaving him to follow behind.

"You're not going to tell me where you were are you?" He said, shaking his head.

"Oh John!" Lyanna exclaimed. "You really are getting good at this!"

"Oh knock it off you brat!"

"Awe… You know you love me!"

"Mrs. Hudson!" They heard Sherlock shout from 221B as they made their way upstairs.

"Don't you take that tone with me young man!" The fierce old lady rebuked the detective. She turned to us as she saw us enter the flat. "He's in quite the mood, this one. Did you see what he did to my damn wall?"

The wall was adored with a yellow smiley. Sherlock looked at the offending painting and smiled, looking remarkable like the said painting before plopping down on the couch.

"What happened Sherly?" Lyanna asked with a giggle. "Couldn't find your skull?"

Sherlock rolled his eyes at the girl and shot her an accusing glare. "My experiment was ruined because of you. Had to pass the time somehow."

"We had the loveliest of days, didn't we John?" Lyanna exclaimed as she took a seat next to the detective.

"Sure" John agreed with an amused smile.

"I met his little doctor friend ~" Lyanna sang teasingly before continuing on with a sigh "She's a nice girl, too bad he was dumped"

"Oh for god's sake!" John exclaimed

"Who? Sally?" Sherlock asked with distaste.

"It's Sarah Sherlock" Lyanna tutted him. "You'd think with that big mind palace of yours, you'd have enough room for the girl's name.

"I don't have space to waste on all the countless girls John dates!"

"Oh Sherlock, you don't have to be jealous" Lyanna cooed. "You know Johnny has eyes only for you!"

"Oh for the last time, I'm not in a relationship with him!" John said exasperatedly.

"Well that's wonderful isn't it" Mrs. Hudson exclaimed. "I was wondering how John was going to cope now that Lyanna is back. He's a lovely boy and a good influence on you Sherlock, but you and Lyanna are just meant to be. I'm so glad you two are back together!"

"Wait – What?" Lyanna said, taken aback.

"Ha!" John said thoroughly amused in Lyanna's expense.

"Oh of course Mrs. Hudson!" Sherlock exclaims as he slid his arm around the flustered girl. "Nobody can refute that, right darling?"

"What are you talking about? We're not da-"She was cut off when Sherlock's hand clamped down on her mouth, leaving behind her muffled protests.

"Shouldn't you be going back down Mrs. Hudson?" Sherlock asked the lady, holding down the struggling girl while John watched with barely suppressed laughter.

"Oh I almost forgot! I have tea on!" She exclaimed before hurrying back down.

"You're an arse Sherlock!" Lyanna exclaimed as soon as she was freed. Sherlock and John exchanged an amused gaze before both bursting out laughing. They hadn't had such a good laugh in a very long time.

"Oh your face!" John exclaimed, pointing at the girl whose face was almost as red as her hair.

"Your both arses" She retorted, a barely suppressed smile adoring her lips as he took in her two flat mates and shook her head at their antics.


	7. Chapter 7

"It's a bit of a dry spell for Sherlock now isn't it" Lyanna said as she and John made their way back to the flat after having their shopping done. After John had come back from the supermarket for the third time after have a row with various machines, she had decided that enough was enough. And so now Lyanna insisted on accompanying the doctor whenever he went shopping. John being the chivalrous gentleman he is, never let her carry the bags though, not that she was complaining.

"Seems so" John sighed. "He's going to explode really soon. I can just feel it."

Lyanna agreed with a nod. "What happened to the bloke that was on trial for murdering his girlfriend again?"

"According to Sherlock he did murder her but his worst crime was his atrocious grammar!"

"Ha!"

_Bang! Bang!_

As they entered the flat, they could hear the gun go off from upstairs.

"Bloody hell!" John shouted as he ran upstairs. Lyanna on the other hand just sighed as she slowly followed, not in any real hurry as she was reasonably certain it was the mad detective that had managed to snag John's gun and was in the process of murdering their wall.

"The wall had it coming" Lyanna heard Sherlock say to John in response to what he asked.

"I'm starving" John said with a sigh, looking defeated. "Anything to eat?"

As he made his way over to the kitchen, Lyanna settled down on Sherlock's armchair to watch the drama unfolding before her. She wondered how long John would last. She would give him fifteen minutes tops before he stormed out of the place. It had now become obvious that when it becomes too much for the doctor, he always runs before he gives into the urge to throttle his flat mate.

"There's a head… a head in the fridge" John muttered. With this development, maybe fifteen minutes would be an over estimate. Lyanna shot the detective a disapproving look which was useless as he seemed to be sulking on the couch, ignoring her.

"Just tea for me, thanks!" He called out, stroking the fire.

"There's a head in the fridge!"

"Yes…"

"A bloody head!"

"Well, where else was I supposed to put it?" Said Sherlock, ignoring the doctor's obvious fury. "You don't mind do you? Got it from Bart's morgue. I'm going to get Lyanna to undo the decay in a day"

"What?!" Lyanna said, grossed out at the prospect. "I don't want to! You do it."

"Either way you will have to be around" Sherlock said with a roll of his eyes. "Besides it's the least you can do after ruining my last experiment."

John sighed, looking utterly defeated as he took a seat in his arm chair. Lyanna gave a sympathetic gaze, knowing that in the mood that Sherlock was in, he would probably just get worse now.

"Read your blog" Sherlock said

"Oh?" John perked up

"A_ study in pink _"

"Pink dress, pink phone… so yeah. Did you like it?"

"Um… No!"

"No? I thought you'd be flattered"

"Flattered about your description of how ignorant I am?"

"Oh I didn't mean it in a bad way" defended John

"Oh you meant ignorant in a good way, I'm sure" scoffed Sherlock "All these trivial boring things don't matter to me. Who married who and what not!"

"Or that the earth revolves around the sun" shot back John

"Really? He doesn't know that?" Lyanna asked, amused.

"Oh not this again!" Sherlock groaned before shooting back up into a sitting position. "It doesn't matter to the work that I do if the earth moves around the sun or the moon!"

"But _how _can you not know that? Its primary school stuff!"

"If I ever did know it I deleted it!"

"Deleted it?"

"My brain is like a hard drive" Sherlock explained, indicating to his head. "If I put useless information in it, I won't be able to find the things that matter when I need them and my brain would _rot. _Put _that _in your blog. Or better yet, stop inflicting your opinions on the rest of the world!" He spat out before throwing himself on the couch and resuming his sulk.

"Sherlock!" Lyanna admonished. He had gone too far and the doctor looked visibly hurt. He quickly got up without a word and muttered something under his breath before grabbing his coat and walking out.

"Where are you going?" Sherlock called out

"Need to get some air!"

"Yoo-hoo!" Mrs. Hudson called as she came into the flat. "Had a bit of a domestic did you?"

"Hey!" Lyanna called out. "I thought I was dating Sherlock."

"Oh I don't judge dear. There are all sorts here."

Lyanna just rolled her eyes while Sherlock let out a scoff before strolling to the window, spying on John's leaving form.

"Look at that Mrs. Hudson" He said "So peaceful. Isn't it _hateful_?"

"A nice little murder would cheer you right up wouldn't it Sherly?" Lyanna scoffed.

"Couldn't come soon enough." He muttered before coming back and plopping down on the couch in a lump.

"It does seem really quiet today doesn't it?" Lyanna commented before going to the window herself to take a look. Maybe being with Sherlock was rubbing off on her, but the quiet was unnaturally eerie.

"Hey!" Mrs. Hudson said as she noticed the new bullet holes on her wall. "What have you don't to my bloody wall now?! This is coming off your rent young-man!" she called back as she left with a huff.

"So John's writing a blog, is he?" Lyanna asked. "His therapist's suggestion?"

"Of course. He should fire her."

"Ha!"

_BANG!_

Lyanna could only hear the ringing in her ear as the glass exploded from behind her, the force of the explosion knocking her off her feet. She faintly heard someone call her name as she saw the detective's face come into view.

_Lyanna!_

John's neck was killing him by the time he got up in the morning. He probably should have taken Sarah up on her offer and taken the lilo.

"Told you should have taken the lilo" Sarah said as he strolled over to him and offered him a much needed tea. "Maybe I'll let you crash at the foot of my bed or something next time."

"Oh?" John said, suddenly feeling bold. "And what about the time after that?"

"Um" Sarah said, embarrassed before changing the subject. "Would you like some breakfast"

"Sure, would love some" John replied, kicking himself for putting his foot in his mouth. He knew that it wasn't fair to push Sarah after what happened to her the last time she decided to give him a chance.

"Well then you should probably make some" She said cheekily. "Because I'm going to take a bath."

John chuckled as he watched the woman leave. The news was on and he absentmindedly listened to it till a certain story caught his attention.

"_An explosion occurred at the center of London yesterday…."_

He felt his heart pound in his ears and couldn't seem to focus on anything else that the woman said as the TV screen showed Baker Street. He faintly heard her say something about no causalities being reported but he knew that he wouldn't be satisfied till he saw them both with his own eyes, safe and sound.

"Sorry Sarah, got to run!" He called out as he grabbed his coat and ran out. "Something's come up!"

He felt some sense of relief as he reached Baker Street and saw the building next to them blown up. He took the stairs two at a time as he made his way up.

"Lyanna! Sherlock!" He called out as he entered the flat and came to a stop as he saw the scene before him. Sherlock was sitting on his armchair, plucking at the stings of his violin as he glared daggers at his brother who had taken John's chair. Lyanna, who was sitting on the couch, seeming amused at whatever was happening, looked up at the doctor and gave him a warm smile.

"Hello John" She greeted him.

"You okay?" he enquired in general, taking both his friends in. Both of them seemed fine. On closer inspection, he saw a small cut on Lyanna's right cheek and went over to inspect it, feeling the doctor inside him kick in. "Saw the news on telly about the explosion."

"Oh that. Gas leak, apparently" Sherlock said, waving his hand dismissively before turning to his brother "I can't."

"Can't?" Mycroft asked, eyebrows raised dubiously.

"I just can't spare the time"

"Never mind your usual trivia" Mycroft said, losing patience. "This is of national importance."

Lyanna cringed as she heard the violin squeak. She was starting to get a really bad head ache with all this quarrelling. John looked at her with concern which she dismissed with a reassuring smile.

"How's the diet?" Sherlock asked, trying to strike a nerve.

"Fine." Mycroft replied, His eyebrows twitched as he turned to the doctor. "Perhaps you can get through to him John?"

"What?" John seemed surprised to suddenly be included in the conversation.

"I'm afraid my brother can be very intransigent."

"If you're so keen then why don't you investigate it?" Sherlock shot back, still playing round with his violin, refusing to give his brother the satisfaction of getting his full attention.

"Oh no no no… I can't possibly be away from the office for any length of time. Not with the Korean elections –"Mycroft stopped himself and smiled forcefully. "Well you don't need to know about that, do you? Besides a case like this requires _leg work_"

Sherlock and Lyanna both scoffed at the obvious disgust at the elder Holmes's face for the word. John's neck was obviously troubling him, Lyanna noticed, feeling disappointed that the doctor wasn't able to put his moves on Sarah. Oh well, it probably wouldn't have lasted anyway.

"How's Sarah, John" Sherlock said, focusing his attention on the doctor. "How was the lilo?"

"Sofa Sherlock" Mycroft chided. "It was the sofa."

"Oh yes, of course"

"How-"John stopped himself from making it even worse for him and shook his head before taking a seat next to Lyanna who patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Never mind"

"Sherlock's business seems to be booming since you and he became _pals_" Mycroft commented. "What's he like to live with? Hellish I imagine?"

Sherlock scowled at Lyanna as she let out a scoff and laughed at that. Even John gave her an amused look before replying with a shrug. "Well, I'm never bored"

"Good. That's good isn't it? And I'm sure Ms. Gilbert more than makes up for all the nastiness you have to endure from my brother."

"Flatters Mikey?" Lyanna said, rolling her eyes.

Lyanna's nickname earned a scoff from Sherlock and a frown from his brother. He sighed before getting up and seemed to decide against giving the file to his brother as he changed tactics and walked over to the couch. Lyanna could see the wheels turning in his head as he quickly dismissed her as a possible ally and turned to the kind doctor. After all, who better that a solder to come to the aid of queen and country!

"Andrew West, known as Westie to his friends. Civil servant." He explained as he handed the file over to a confused John. "Found dead on the tracks at Battersea Station this morning with his head smashed in."

"Jumped in front of the train?" Asked John

"Seems the logical assumption"

"But?"

"But?"

"Well, you wouldn't be here if it was just an accident" Commented John, earning a scoff from both his friends.

"The MOD is working on a new missile defense system. The Bruce-Partington program, it's called." Explained the elder Holmes. "The plans for it was on a memory stick."

"That wasn't very clever." John chuckled.

"It's not the only copy" Mycroft replied condescendingly.

"Oh"

"But it _is_ secret, and _missing_."

"Top secret?"

"Very."

"We think West must have taken the memory stick. We can't possibly risk it falling into the wrong hands." He said, turning his attention to his brother. "You've got to find those plans, Sherlock. Don't make me order you"

Sherlock took in a deep breath before taking his violin in his hands, getting ready to play, but not before locking eyes with brother in a challenging glare. "I'd like to see you try."

"Think it over. Goodbye John" He said, turning over to the doctor who politely stood up to shake his hand. The same couldn't be said of Lyanna who didn't look like she could be bothered to. Mycroft looked her over with a tight lipped smile. "See you _very_ soon"

Lyanna clapped her ears shut as Sherlock played the violin in the worst was imaginable in honor of his brother's departure. The squeals seemed to cut through her ears, adding to the raging headache that seemed to taken a firm hold over her.

"You okay?" John asked, worry clear in his voice. Lyanna nodded, and indeed she did feel a bit better now that the detective had stopped abusing the instrument. "I think I need something for the headache though."

John nodded, accepting the answer as he quickly fetched the pill for her with a glass of water. Lyanna smiled at him gratefully as she accepted it and swallowed the pill. Making a face as she did though, she never was a fan of pills.

"So." John asked, turning to the detective. "Why did you lie? You've got nothing on. Not a single case. That's why the wall took a pounding. Why did you tell your brother you were busy?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Sherlock replied childishly.

"Oh. Nice." John said, realization brightening his face. "Sibling rivalry. Now we're getting somewhere."

_Ring! Ring!_

"Sherlock Holmes" the detective asked, looking slightly annoyed. He was never a fan of calls. But the look quickly turned into delight as he heard whatever the caller said. "Of course how can I refuse?"

"Lestrade." He informed the other two as he hung up. Delight evident on his face. "I've been summoned. Coming?"

"If you want me to" Said John doubtfully.

"Of course" Replied Sherlock with a smirk. "I'd be lost without my blogger".

Lyanna left out a laugh as she got up as usual. Swaying lightly as she felt the head-ache flare up again from the sudden motion. John grabbed her hand to steady her, shooting her a disapproving look.

"You're not coming Lya" John insisted sternly.

"What? Of course she is" Sherlock protested.

"I'm fine John." Lyanna said, rolling her eyes. But the action itself was proving to be counterintuitive to her attempt to be convincing as the sudden movement of her eyes caused her to wince.

"Look at her Sherlock!" John exclaimed. "She needs rest. Let her sleep for the day and she can join us tomorrow."

Sherlock gazed her over with his sharp eyes and had to admit to himself that the doctor was right. He sighed as he conceded and grabbed the girl by the hand and he ushered her into his room, ignoring her protests. He made her get into the bed, which she did when she understood that she really didn't have the energy to fight him off.

"You have the day to get better." Sherlock informed her. "You're coming tomorrow whether you get better or not."

"Sure." She agreed with a roll of her eyes.

"You really did tuck her in didn't you?" Lyanna heard the doctor ask Sherlock with a laugh as they made their way out.

"Oh, shut up!"

It must have been a few hours later that Lyanna was woken up from voices she heard from downstairs. It wasn't too loud, but loud enough to wake her up. She got up and stretched before getting up. The pill seemed to have done its job as she felt much better now. She made her way downstairs to see what all the fuss was about.

"Who're you?" A woman asked her, giving her a suspicious look before beckoning the guy next to her over "Hey Anderson, looks like the freak has a girl in his apartment. Did he kidnap you or something sweetheart?"

Lyanna felt her eyebrows shoot up in surprise at what this woman was saying and felt an instinctive dislike to her.

"Lyanna?" He heard someone call from behind them; she turned to see Greg Lestrade make his way over to them. He pushed past the two and took the girl in his arms into a tight hug.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her with a grin.

"Hey Greg. Long time no see huh?" She grinned back sheepishly. "I came back a few days ago"

"You're back in London again?" he asked confused.

"Lestrade!" they heard Sherlock call out from a room that Lyanna hadn't noticed was there before. She followed behind the detective inspector as he made his way over to the detective to what she was told was 221-C

"There's a 221-C?" She asked the detective when she saw him inside the room, examining a pair of shoes. "Why am I sharing a room with you when this is available?"

"You two are sleeping together?" The woman from earlier asked in shock.

"Not in the fun way that you are implying Donavan" Sherlock said with a sneer before turning his attention back to her. "And no. You're not getting this room."

"Why not?" Lyanna pouted.

"Because." Sherlock replied, dismissing her with the word and turning his attention to the Detective Inspector as he instructed him to get the forensic team in the apartment.

"So what's all this about?" Lyanna asked John

"There was a pink phone sent to Sherlock at Scotland Yard." John explained. "It looked like a phone that a victim of a previous case had. A message was sent to it with a picture of this room. The guy we're dealing with is apparently a bomber and has given Sherlock nine hours to solve the puzzle. We came here to find the shoes. That's pretty much it for the moment. Oh and the photo had five pips, and Sherlock thinks that means there are going to be five more of this cases."

"Well…" Lyanna sighed. "Looks like Sherlock got what he wished for doesn't it? The criminals of London have finally risen form their slumber."

"Hey!" Lyanna protested as Sherlock grabbed her hand and dragged her with him as he made his way out, shouting something about going to the lab at Bart's. John was running behind them to keep up as Sherlock hailed the cab.

Sherlock was buzzing with excitement as they reached the lab

"Oh Hello!" Molly greeted them as they entered. Her smile faltering as she took in Lyanna's arm in Sherlock's. He had refused to let her go, claiming that she was too slow. She shook him off, now that they had reached and he allowed her to, now distracted in his thoughts as he ignored the brunet's greetings and made his way over to do the tests.

"Hello" Lyanna said to the girl awkwardly as she looked to the doctor for introductions.

"Hey Molly" John said, politely. "This is Lyanna, a friend of ours. Lya, this is Molly, she works at the morgue."

"You're a friend of Sherlock's?" She asked, shocked.

"Kind of" Lyanna replied, rubbing the back of her neck. She felt relieved when Sherlock beckoned them over and broke the awkward silence.

"So who do you suppose she was?" John wondered. Lyanna looked up from where she was examining the shoes as requested (ordered) by the detective.

"Hmm?" said Sherlock, not looking up from the microscope

"The woman on the phone. " John explained. "The crying woman."

"Oh, she doesn't matter." Sherlock said dismissively. "She's just a hostage. No leads there."

"For God's sake, I wasn't thinking about leads." John replied, frustrated

"You're not going to be much use to her."

"Are they trying to trace the call?"

"This one is too smart for her" Said Sherlock. "Pass me my phone."

"Where is it?" John asked looking around.

"Jacket."

John looked confused for a second and then frustration hit him as he realized the detective meant the jacket that he was wearing at the moment. He couldn't be bothered to reach into his own jacket and take the phone out. How typical! _Think of the crying woman_, John told himself as he sucked it up and humored the detective.

"Careful!" Sherlock protested when John was a bit rougher than strictly necessary.

Lyanna rolled her eyes and admired John for his patience. She couldn't imagine letting Sherlock get away with half the things that he does.

"Text from your brother." John informed him, looking through the phone.

"Delete it." Came the reply, without hesitation.

"Delete it?"

"Missile plans are out of the country now. Nothing we can do about it."

"Mycroft seems to think there is. He's texted you eight times. Must be important."

"Then why didn't he cancel his dental appointment?"

"His what?" asked John, confused?

"Mycroft never texts when he can talk." Lyanna commented from where she was examining the shoe.

"Yes." Sherlock agreed, looking up from the microscope to give her a smirk for her effort, before turning back to John and explaining "Look, Andrew West stole the missile plans, tried to sell them, and got his head smashed in for his pains. End of story. The only mystery is this, why is my brother so determined to bore me when somebody else is being so delightfully interesting?"

"Try and remember there's a woman who might die" John said as he felt his temper rise.

"What for?" Sherlock said, looking up at the doctor "There's hospitals full of people dying, Doctor. Why don't you go cry by their bedside? See what good it does them."

"I think you were right Sherlock" said Lyanna, gesturing at the shoe. "I can feel traces of magic in this. If I had to guess, I'd say it's an obscuring spell. My guess is until you lift it, any tests you do on this is a waste of time.

"That's brilliant." Sherlock said, with a laugh as he made his way over to her. John himself looked excited as he followed, but his distaste at the detective's misplaced enthusiasm was apparent.

"Go on then." Sherlock said, looking at her expectedly. "Break it."

"I don't know whether to be flattered at your unwavering faith in my ability or be offended at being ordered around." Lyanna muttered.

"Be flattered of course" Sherlock replied back with a roll of his eyes. "Go on then"

"Let's see what we're dealing with first" She said as she set the shoe down and took a deep breath.

"You're going to use 'Mage's vision' aren't you?" Asked Sherlock with a grin. Lyanna's control over magic was unparalleled. There was only few people that he wouldn't mind being out done by and she was one of them. He watched as the girl before him seemed to still as she focused her magic.

"'Mage's vision?'? I've seen wizards at the army do that. It's very high level magic isn't it. Supposed to be very useful for healers, I'm told." John said as he watched the girl in awe.

Lyanna focused her magic on her eyes as she had done hundreds of times before. She may not be the strongest magic users out there but what magic she did have, she was damn good at controlling. This spell which even the most skilled of mage's had difficulty doing properly came easily to her. When she finally opened her eyes, it glowed blue. Most would associate the color blue with water but once they saw the girl before them, they could never do so. Her eyes shone like the blue of the hottest fire. It was as magnificent as a star.

Lyanna could see everything she needed to as she took the shoes in. She could see the threads of magic woven into the fabric. It was elegant, the work of a skilled mage. She carefully untangles them with her own magic, knowing full well that any slip from her would destroy their only clue. It took her less than a minute to complete the task. Once don't she closed her eyes and willed it to go back to normal.

"Is it done?" Sherlock asked.

"Of course" Lyanna said.

"Run tests for pollen on the mud." Sherlock commanded handing the shoe to John.

"I'll do it." Lyanna offered. "Need to stretch my legs anyway."

She took the shoe and made her way to the lab next door to do the tests required. It took her barely fifteen minutes to get a match. She printed out the results and made her way back.

"That Sherlock, was not kind!" She heard John exclaim as she walked in.

"Everything alright?" She asked.

"Sure, everything is peachy" John said, sarcastically. "Sherlock just called Molly's new boyfriend gay and to add insult to injury, he said she's gained three pounds!"

"Ouch!" Lyanna winced as she handed the report over to the detective.

"Yes!" He exclaimed as he saw the result.

"Molly had a boyfriend?" Lyanna asked John

"Oh let's not get into that" John said with a sigh.

"Go on then" Sherlock looked at John, indicating to the shoes.

"You know what I do, off you go."

"Oh… No. I'm not going to stand here so you can humiliate me while I try and –"

"An outside eye is very useful to me" Sherlock insisted.

"Yeah, right!"

"Really!"

"Fine" He conceded as he took a shoe in his hands and examined it. "They're just a pair of shoes… Trainers".

"Good" Sherlock encourage. Lyanna shot him a warning look to which Sherlock rolled his eyes.

"Um… They're in good nick. I'd say they were pretty new" John said, feeling the pressure of both his friends' eyes on him. He knew for a fact that either of them could spot much more on this than he could with their eyes closed; but he couldn't give Sherlock the satisfaction of giving up now. He gazed at Lyanna to find her smiling encouragingly at him which he found oddly reassuring. "Except the sole's been were worn, so the owner must have had them for a while. Uh, very eighties. Probably one of those retro designs. "

"You're in sparkling form" Sherlock commented. "What else?"

"They're quite big. A man's"

"But?" Lyanna prompted, a smile playing about her lips. John could tell that the girl was actually proud of him and it made his heart feel warm.

"But there's traces of a name inside in felt tip." John noticed "And adults don't write their names inside their shoes, so these belong to a kid"

"Excellent." Sherlock said, leaning back on his chair "What else?"

"Uh…" John hesitated, looking for anything he may have missed. "That's it."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, how did I do?"

"Well John" Sherlock said. "Really well."

"You did spectacularly John!" Lyanna exclaimed, patting the doctor on his back, earning a genuine smile out of him.

"I mean you missed almost everything important." Sherlock went on "But, you know…"

John handed the shoe back to the smug detective in defeat as Lyanna groaned as she face palmed behind him.

"The owner loved these. Scrubbed them clean. Whitened where they got discolored. Changed the laces three… No, four times." Sherlock shot out his deductions as John shook his head. The detective just couldn't help but show off "Even so there are traces of his flaky skin where his fingers have come in contact with them, so he suffered from eczema. The shoes are well worn, more on the inner side, which means the owner has weak arches. British made. Twenty years old"

"Twenty years?" John asked

"They're not retro, they're original. Limited edition two blue stripes, 1989" Sherlock said showing John his phone.

"But there's still mud on them" said John, bewildered. "They look new"

"Someone's kept them that way. Quite a bit of mud caked on the soles. Analysis shows it's from Sussex with London mud overlaying it."

"How do you know?"

"Pollen" He said, indicating to the report Lyanna had handed him. "Clear as a map reference to me. South of the river too. So the kid who wore these trainers came to London from Sussex, twenty years back and left them behind."

"So what happened to him?" asked John

"Something bad." Concluded the detective. "He loved those shoes, remember. He'd never leave them filthy. Won't let them go unless he had to. So a child with big feet get -" He came to stop as realization suddenly lit his eyes. "Oh!"

"What?"

"Carl Powers."

"Sorry, who?"

"Carl Powers, John"

"What is it?"

"It's where I began. " He said excitedly. "1989, young kid, champion swimmer, came up from Brighton for school sports tournament, drowned in the pool. Tragic accident. You wouldn't remember it, why would you?"

"But you remember?"

"Yes."

"Something fishy about it?"

"Nobody thought so. Nobody except me. I was only a kid myself. I read about it in the papers. The boy had some kind of a fit in the water, but by the time they got him out, it was too late. There was something wrong with it. I couldn't get it out of my head."

"What?"

"His shoes. They weren't there. I made a fuss. Tried to get the police interested, but nobody seemed to think it was important. He'd left all the rest of his cloths in his locker. But there was no sign of his shoes. Until now."

"These shoes?"

"Yes. You know what this means?" he asked, looking impatient that they hadn't caught on. "The bomber either knew the killer or was the killer himself!"

"Do you think its Moriarty?" john wondered out loud

"Could be"

They were too busy with their discussion to notice that Lyanna had stiffened ever so slightly at the mention of the name. It was there a flicker of a second and then it was gone."

_Beep!_

John's phone lit up with an incoming message.

"It's your brother." He said with a frown. "He's texting me now. How'd he get my number?"

"Must be a root canal" Lyanna scoff earning her a smirk from the detective.

"He did say matter of national importance" Pointed out John

"How quaint!" Scoffed the detective.

"What is?"

"You are. Queen and country."

"You can't just ignore it." John insisted.

"I'm not ignoring it. Putting my best man onto it right now."

"Right. Good. Who's that?"

"Oh John" Lyanna sighed. "You poor dear. You do realize that case has just fallen on your head."

"Oh" John said. If that's what it took, then fine he would do it. It wasn't like he was of much use here anyway. "Fine then, I'll go meet Mycroft, shall I?"

"I have some things to take care of too." Lyanna said getting up to follow behind the doctor.

"What things?" Sherlock asked suspiciously.

"I have a small lead I need to follow up on."

"I'll come with you."

"What? And leave the poor woman to die? I'll take care of it and meet you guys."

Sherlock looked like he wanted to protest, but seemed to think better of it as he dismissed her with a nod. As she walked through the halls of St. Bart's she noticed something off. There was an energy in the air that she had ignored previously; but now that she thought about it, she was sure it was him. However faint, she could sense his presence. He was in the building. If she knew the man, and she did, he was one for theatrics and was probably looking for a dramatic moment to let himself be known.

If it was a meeting he desires, she would be more than willing to oblige. She walked into a deserted ward that she spotted in the hall and took a seat on a bed, hoping that he wouldn't keep her waiting for too long. And sure enough he did not.

"Hello there, Lya" Called out the familiar Irish voice that she hadn't heard in such a long time. "Missed me?"

She looked up to see the man whose name left even the scariest if criminals in London quivering in their boots and was left surprised at what she saw. The years seemed to have deteriorated his taste in clothes if nothing else, for before here was not the James Moriarty who always dressed in style. He almost looked gay.

_Gay!_ That's when it hit her, Molly's gay boyfriend! She would bet money that was Jim. So he was doing one of his personas huh? She could work with that. She took in the goons flanking him on both sides before getting up slowly, taking her time.

"Jimmy!" She called out with all the enthusiasm she could muster as she walked over to him with open arms. "You have no idea how much I missed you!"

Her eyes glowed ever so slightly as she moved. One second she was before the three men, with open arms and a wide grin and the next she had swiped the gun off both the goons and they were out cold. If you had blinked you would have missed it.

"The question is, dear Jimmy" She said with a smirk as she looked into the Irishman's eyes, both guns pointed to his chest. "Did you miss me?"

"Oooh My darling Lya! ~" He sang "You're faster than I remember you being. Have you been training? You naughty girl! Tell me sweetheart, are you going to shoot me?"

"Hmm…" She seemed to be considering her options for a few seconds before chuckling and dropping the guns. "Of course not. You need to invest in better trained goons Jimmy. You can come out now Sebastian! I'm not going to try to kill your boss anyway. And let's not pretend the guns would have don't any damage on him at all!"

"Come on out then Sebby" Moriarty said, rolling his eyes. "Let it not be said that my darling girl wished something and I didn't make it happen. Oh and the goons were never supposed to stand a chance against you, sweetheart; daddy just wanted his little girl to blow off some steam ~"

Sebastian walked out from behind her, perfect vantage point to land a killing blow if required, she was sure. He gave her a small tight lipped smile. Pleasantries would have to wait until she was no longer a threat.

"So you're dating Molly then?" Lyanna asked, with a smirk.

"Jealous?" Jim retorted with a grin. "She was just my way to meet our dear detective friend. I wanted to make a fleeting impression you see and I figured her utter boring personality might camouflage my brilliance~"

"There is a point to our meeting I suppose?"

"Can't it be because I missed you?" Jim asked, pouting.

"It can. But that's not the only reason is it?"

"No" Jim said, his expression morphing into a slightly serious one. "I'm afraid I have to kidnap you for a while."

"Oh? But you haven't even threatened me yet" Lyanna pointed out.

"Do you really need a threat sweetheart? You know I always get my way."

"Oh but threats are the best part. You always do get creative Jimmy."

"Okay." Jim said, rolling his eyes "How about if you don't cooperate, I blow up Dr. Watson?"

"Not very creative" Lyanna sighed "But I guess it is effective enough. So you want me to just walk out with you?"

"I hadn't really thought that far ahead" Said Jim, seeming to consider his option. "Eh, I change my mind. Seb take care of her would you?"

Lyanna didn't have time to react before the assassin sprang on her. She felt a wave of energy shoot through her before her head became too heavy and darkness enveloped her.

"Really shouldn't let your guard down, Lya" Sebastian's words were the last thing she heard before the world went dark.


	8. Chapter 8

Lyanna woke up with a groan as she felt the crushing headache. The room that she was in was mercifully dark. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to her surroundings and realized that she was in what appeared to be a dungeon.

'Are there any dungeons in London?', she found herself wondering before quickly concluding that if at all there was one, James Moriarty would surely find it. Her hands were even in shackles, she realized with amusement that really didn't suit the situation that she had gotten herself into.

"You've finally woken up I see" Jim said as he strolled into the cell casually, looking stunning in his black suit "I thought Seb may have overdone it a bit."

"Ah Jim, I missed your suit" Lyanna said with a grin. "Aren't you being a little too theatrical with these shackles though?"

"I can never be too careful with you sweetheart. I should know that by now." Jim said with a chuckle as he crouched down to her level on the floor. "Your hands must be killing you. I would say I'm sorry, but then again, maybe I'm not. I am still mad at how you deserted me you know."

"That's fair." Lyanna allowed. "So how have you been?"

"Great~" The Irish man sang. "I noticed you are letting everyone call you our nickname for you now. I'm hurt."

"Maybe it's because I miss you? And being called that by other people is just a consolation?" She said with a roll of her eyes, stoking the eccentric mage's ego

"Oh, my darling ~! You know just what to say!" He exclaimed. "You seem to be jumping from detectives to detectives. Tell me darling, where is your _L_? He's a very difficult man to get a hold of."

"I haven't the faintest clue" Lyanna shrugged. "Probably chasing after whatever you let out."

"Ooooh~" Jim clapped his hands looking thoroughly delighted. "So, you figured it out? I'm so proud of my little girl. Did you guess what exactly I did?"

"Not yet" she admitted smirking at the criminal mastermind. "But I will."

"I'm sure you will." He said. "By the way, I've been making your detective friend jump all kind of hoops. You have been out of it for quite some time now. He's working on the last one. He actually broke an obscuring spell on a painting all on his worn to save a kid's life today. How so touchingly _noble_! Are you proud?"

"I am actually" Lyanna admitted with a smirk as she watched the Irish man's face darken at her words.

"He still has no idea who I am. Thinks I'm after the missile plans!" He scoffed. "Both L and Sherlock! They're all fools the whole lot of them. Really? You actually chose to side with them?

"L is the smartest person I've ever met" Lyanna said as she gauged the sorcerer for his reaction. "And Sherlock Holmes will one day become the greatest sorcerer this world has ever seen."

James Moriarty went completely still for a second as he took in her words, and the resemblance of the eccentric Irish man now erased completely from his features and what was left in its wake was the face of a formidable mage, radiating the hidden powers he possessed. At that moment Lyanna knew that it would be only too easy for the sorcerer to end her life and though she knew she should be more concerned about this fact than she was, she couldn't bring herself up to be.

He crouched down close to her, his face void of any expression. As she gazed into his eyes, she saw them change into bright amber before it shone bright gold. His hand rested on her abdomen and she could feel it vibrate with energy. With a calculated push from the sorcerer's hand Lyanna's world came to a screeching halt as unimaginable pain overtook her entire existence.

She doubled over as she felt the unbearable pain roll through her body in pain as Jim's hands held her in place as he administrated the said pain.

"Shhh…" He shushed her as she choked up blood. "It's alright. You're fine. You just don't know any better. You will realize how wrong you are my princess. Very soon. I promise you that.

With that, the Irish man stormed out of the cell, leaving the girl on the floor where she had fallen, held up only by the shackles on her nods that effectively sopped any magic from being accessible to her.

"Oh, for _god's sake _Lyanna!" Sebastian called from the door as he hurried over to the fallen girl. "What's wrong with you? "

"Oh, hey Seb" She said casually as she watched him look at her with horror. She must have been quite the sight to behold, if his expression was anything to go by. "How have you been?"

As she took in the former solder, she could see that the years had left him almost unchanged. Being a pureblood, time had had no effect on him and being the brooding temperament of a man, he was, his all black clothing seemed to have stuck, all down to his cloak. His blond hair was a little longer than it used to be, but she had to admit, it looked better on him. Even with the scowl that adored his face, as it usually did in her presence, he looked handsome.

"Have you actually gotten suicidal, Lyanna? Or do you just love the pain?" He asked as came and stood next to her.

"Is that concern I hear?" She said with a scoff that lost its effect as a coughing fit overtook her.

"Concern?" Seb scoffed, "The only thing I'm concerned about is that your own stupidity will get you killed before I get a chance to."

"Oh, don't worry." Lyanna said. "Besides, I would have thought you would love this Seby. You're daddy's favorite now."

"Try not to choke to death in here" He said with a sigh as he walked away before abruptly stopping at the door. "Not that I would care, but the boss would be annoyed."

With the parting word, the blond sniper made his way out, making sure to lock the dungeon behind him. He knew very well that if the scarlet sorceress could get out of the binding spell his boss had placed on her bonds, then the door would do nothing to stop her. He knew better than anyone else how strong and sharp the girl could be.

As he closed the door behind him, he stole one last glance of her, and he admitted to himself that his sole opponent of all these years had grown into a beautiful woman. Not that her age had ever been a barrier for the scarlet sorceress, after all, he remembered how she had bested him at the age of twelve…

_Five years ago, Sebastian had left the army and had joined forces with his old army friends, to take down the napoleon of crime himself – James Moriarty. Back then, if someone had told him he would someday become second in command to the very man he would have laughed in their face. But time has a funny way of changing your perceptions._

_He was on a mission that day. One of his underlings had gone missing while attempting to infiltrate his way into Moriarty's ranks and they had to act fast if they had any hope of getting him back above. He was following up on a lead that one of Moriarty's known high end underling – General McGurk, who was doing some of his bidding at the port and there was talk that one of the criminal overlord's direct subordinate was overseeing the whole thing._

_As he made his way to the port, he saw McGurk waiting impatiently. McGurk looked in his late forties… At least, that would be the case if he were human. But Sebastian knew for a fact that the general was a wizard and would thus be aging very slowly. If he had to guess, McGurk would be at least two hundred years old. From what he had heard, the general's skills reflected those years and could be formidable in battle._

_From what the former sniper could make of the conversation taking place from his hiding place on the docks, Ms. Gilbert, their superior, was not yet there. And if McGurk's ever-increasing agitation is anything to go by, she was running quite late. Sebastian was starting to grow bored as he waited, the fact that his hiding place left him in a very uncomfortable for such a long time did nothing to ease his mood._

"_Oh Ms. Gilbert! You're here Ma'am" Sebastian looked up in shock as he heard the former general shout. His initial shock at being blindsided to the arrival of said Ms. Gilbert was overshadowed by the utter shock that took over him as he saw her for the first time. He had a perfect view of her from his hiding spot as she was perched on the cargo overlooking the men under her command. There were a lot of things about her that shattered the image Sebastian had built up for her in his mind. For one, he had expected someone serious, someone like the general himself, who gave off the enormous power and authority she clearly carried. But she seemed like she could care less about anything that was happening as she sat on the cargo, crossed legged, seeming engrossed in the book she had in her hand (It occurred to Sebastian that she must have been quite fast to actually get here without anyone noticing her, but it was too far back in his mind). But all this seemed almost irrelevant when compared to what shocked him most about the girl; and that was just it - She was a _girl. _An actual girl. With her mid- waist length auburn hair and cute fringes over her face coupled with her blue eyes, she stuck out like a sour thump in the place. She couldn't have been more than twelve! It was almost comical that all these men were almost bowing to her!_

"_Ms. Gilbert?" McGurk stopped his endless monotone as he explained their predicament to the girl, when he noticed she wasn't paying him any attention. _

"_Yes?" She said, finally looking up, reluctantly._

"_Did you – did you hear what I just said?" He asked hesitantly._

"_Oh" She rubbed the back of her neck bashfully. "I'm afraid not. Do you might repeating?"_

"_Of course not!" He quickly insisted, seeming to live to serve the girl. "I was saying that we are zeroing in on our search for the grimoires. Our team has eyes and ears everywhere ma'am, and I'm sure we'll be able to get to it very soon. You didn't have to take the trouble of coming all the way down."_

"_Hmm…" She said thoughtfully and she closed the book with a snap before putting it back in her flowery backpack and leaping down from her perch and landing effortlessly. She smirked slightly as she regarded the men. "I suppose you were too focused on the matter at hand to notice we have a spy?"_

_Sebastian froze as he felt her piercing blue eyes on him and in a matter of second, the general was on him like a hound unleashed. The port lit up as spells flew from the sorcerer and wizard. Clearly out skilled by the sheer experience of the man, Sebastian had to use every skill he had learnt in the seventeen years of his life to keep from being struck down. But at the end, it didn't matter. He couldn't be expected to hold his own against the man now that he had lost his element of surprise. _

_He was bound by a binding spell and hauled over to the girl. He looked up with irritation to see that his fight for his life had not been entertaining enough for her as she had gone back to her book. Just who was this girl?!_

"_Hello there Sebastian!" She called up once he was made to kneel before her. _

"_Hello to you too." He spat out. "Since we're apparently on first name basis, what should I be calling you?"_

_A gasp ran through the men. McGurk seemed to be choking as he looked over to his superior. Sebastian had apparently committed a heinous crime in demanding the girl's name. She herself didn't seem to mind as she looked over with an amused smile._

"_Hmm…" She said thoughtfully. "You can call me Celeste."_

"_That's not your real name, is it?"_

"_Of course not." She laughed. "So, Colonel, to what do I owe this pleasure. No, don't tell me. You're here for your boy, aren't you?"_

"_How do you know so much about me?"_

"_You know, your little stunt can get you killed." She said, avoiding his question and she knelt next to him thoughtfully "Should I have you killed?"_

"_I get to decide?" He asked dubiously_

"_No, not really. Just thinking out loud. Eh, what the hell" She said with a shrug before getting up with an air of benevolence. "I'll give you a chance to not die." _

"_Oh, how kind of you." Sebastian scoffed, wincing as he got a kick for his effort from the general. Apparently, his tone was not appreciated._

"_If you'd rather I let McGurk handle you…" She trailed off, letting him see the evil gleam in the said generals' eyes before continuing. "That can be easily arranged."_

"_I think I'll pass." He said, quickly realizing that this was his best way out of the situation._

"_Wonderful!" She exclaimed. "I knew you'd come around."_

"_There's a catch, I assume?"_

"_Of course! He's so smart, isn't he McGurk?" She said excitedly. It almost sounded like she had just taught her pet a new trick. The general was quick to agree of course, anything to please Ms. In charge! "It's not too complicated Seby. All you have to do is help us find a small book and that's it and we'll spare your life. Oh, what the hell, I'm feeling charitable – I'll even let your little friend go. So how does that sound?"_

"_By 'a little book' you mean the grimoire?" He asked, quickly catching on._

"_Maybe" She allowed. "Is that a yes?"_

"_You'll let my fried go? Why should I believe you?"_

"_What? My word isn't good enough for you?" She asked in shock. "I'm hurt Seby!"_

"_The real question is, do I have a choice." He muttered_

"_Does that mean you agree?" She asked, with a laugh_

"_Ok, I guess" He said, resolving to give the girl a chance against his better judgement._

"_Off we go then" She declared before striding off. Sebastian wasn't sure but he thought she was humming of all things. The General and his men chased after her after making sure, he was not trying to run off. Frankly, Sebastian didn't see the point in trying; the general would have him pinned in a minute._

"_Hey Celest!" Sebastian called out to the girl who didn't even seem to hear him_

"_Celest!" He tried again, ignoring the glare he was receiving from the General_

"_Gilbert!" He tried changing tactics when he realized she wasn't going to respond to the made-up name. Thankfully this time, he got her attention as she turned back as he caught up with her._

"_Yes?"_

"_What exactly is the point of giving me a fake name if you're not even going to respond to it?"_

"_Exactly that!" She declared. "The point was that you couldn't pester me. But apparently you have picked up on my last name. So, the whole point is now moot!"_

"_How am I supposed to help you find the Grimoire if you don't even give me any details?"_

"_Fine!" She said huffing with irritation. "Ever heard about time magic, Colonel?"_

"_I may have."_

"_I thought as much. This is an old grimoire, from the middle east that has been recently located here at London. My sources tell me you have dealt with it in your time in the army."_

"_Who exactly are your sources?" Sebastian asked suspiciously. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had somehow been played into coming along with the girl. Was it crazy to suspect that she had somehow orchestrated his whole plan from the beginning?_

"_That's for me to know..." She said, sticking her tongue out at him. "Normally, I would find it on my own, but in this case, time seems to be a factor. You see, a detective who goes by the name L seems to be on the case as well."_

"_Well Ma'am" The General spoke up from behind them. His tone seemed smug and it was clear he seemed to have some important information on the topic. "We have someone else to worry about as well. My sources tell me Deneuve is on the case as well."_

"_Oh, don't worry about that." She said, waving him off. "I'm Deneuve."_

"_Wait what?!" Sebastian said, coming to a stop in shock. The general had also stopped walking and if his open jaws were anything to go by, he was just as dumbstruck as he was. "But Deneuve is a detective!"_

"_I do a little detective work from time to time when I get bored" She shrugged, impatiently. "Come on now! I did say time is a factor!"_

"_Sorry Ma'am" The general was quick to apologize, his head bowed in shame as he quickly followed behind the girl as Sebastian hurried to catch up._

"_So, let me get this straight. You're one of the best detectives in the word?"_

"_Well, technically I'm the second best at the moment." She admitted with a hint of annoyance. "But to be fair, I'm a detective only part time and I'm still this good. So that counts for something!"_

"_But you're what? Ten?!"_

"_I'm twelve! And what does that have anything to do with it?"_

"_Shouldn't you be playing with dolls or something?" Sebastian asked with a scoff._

"_Hmm..." She said, glaring at him. "Maybe I should have you killed after all."_

"_Err…" The snipper flinched as he realized the General looked ready to tear into him at a hint of command from the girl. "I take it back! Really, what does it matter. It's none of my business at all."_

"_That's better!"_

_Before Sebastian realized it, they seem to have reached their destination which was apparently the library. Gilbert didn't stop for a second as she made her way over to the Magical section and let the general and his goons help her carry what seemed like the heaviest books the Library had to offer over to the reading area._

_She gestured for him to join her at the table before moving a tower of books over to him. He sighed with resignation as she opened one of them. The books were about the origin of time magic. And detailed through the spell's workings. How this was going to help them get the grimoire was beyond him. Though, let it not be said that he wasn't keeping his part of the deal, he thought as he flipped through the pages._

_They must have been at it for an hour before Sebastian looked up as he heard some familiar voices. It was his friends Liam ad Sean. They were no doubt doing some research to help them fight against Moriarty. He ducked under the pile of books, hoping that they won't see him. It wouldn't do any good to get them in this mess too._

"_Shit!" Sebastian cursed under his breath as they seemed to be moving closer to him. Gilbert must have heard him, as she looked up from her own book, suppressing a yawn. Her eyes lit up with intreat though, as she saw her captive hiding from the boys._

"_Friends of yours?" She asked with a grin and before he could stop her, she was waving to the guys. "Hey there, Fellas!"_

"_What the hell are you doing?" Sebastian hissed at hissed at her, but by then it was too late._

"_Sebastian?" Sean said, heading over to them, confusion evident in his face. "Where have you been, man? We've been trying to get a hold of you for days!"_

"_Its complicated" He muttered out, only too aware of the General looming over them. The last thing he wanted was to get his friends mixed up in his mess. _

"_Is that… He works for Moriarty, right?!" Liam exclaimed as he recognized McGurk. "What are you doing with him? I thought you'd be trying to save Seth like the rest of us!"_

"_Seth?" Gilbert asked, speaking up. "Oh, you mean the boy."_

"_Who's the kid?" Liam asked dubiously._

"_It doesn't matter." She said as she waved him off. "Hey McGurk, release the boy, would you?"_

"_Are you sure Ma'am?" The general asked, shocked at the sudden order._

"_Sure, why not. Seby wants him released, doesn't he?" She asked and he nodded hesitantly in response. "And so, it shall be done. Now you two – as nice as it was to make you acquaintance, you are wasting precious time now. Off you go"_

"_Why you little brat!" Liam seethed. "We could take out the lot of you right now. Right Sebastian?"_

"_Sebastian?" Sean asked in confusion as the sniper remained hesitant. "What's wrong with you?"_

"_You should leave now, guys." Sebastian said with a sigh._

"_What? You're going to stay with them?!" Sean asked incredulously. He looked like he would boil anymore and before Sebastian could defend himself, Sean's hand shot up and glowed red as the magic simmered. Sebastian acted before the general could and blocked his friend, effortlessly flooring them both with his shield spell. In his eyes he was saving them both from certain death, but he could see how they would perceive his action as betrayal._

"_You traitor!" Liam shouted as he helped his fried up and retreating the hostile situation._

"_Well, that was dramatic" Gilbert said, letting out a whistle as she subtly waved off the General who seemed to be asking if they should go after the guys._

"_I don't want to talk about it." Sebastian grumbled out as he went back to his pointless reading. He was starting to develop a headache._

_They must have been at it for a few minutes when the generals phone rand and he excused himself, leaving his goons in charge of looking over the girl._

"_You really released Seth?" Sebastian found himself asking._

"_Yup. "  
"But why? How do I know I won't bolt now?"_

"_You're an honorable man Seby" was her response as she grinned at him. "You keep your words. Loyalty means something to you doesn't it?"_

"_You know most twelve-year old kids don't talk like this, right?"_

"_Eh, what's the fun in being ordinary?_

"_Ma'am!" The general called as he ran over. "The base by the port was attacked, just as you anticipated."_

"_Excellent!" the girl exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "So, did they capture them?"_

"_They did… "He said hesitantly. "But something went wrong."_

"_Who was it?" She asked and in that second, her whole dementor had changed. Gone was the bubbly eccentric kid that was before him just a second ago. Now, even though she looked and sounded calm, he could feel the power inside and for a moment, Sebastian felt a shiver of fear run through his spine._

"_It was Beyond. He lost control and killed them Ma'am. I'm afraid we have none of them alive." The general seemed to bow out of instinct. You'd think he had personally wronged her in some way from the misery that was on the man's face._

"_Of course, it was beyond. Let's pay him a visit, shall we?"_

_Gilbert didn't wait to see if they were following behind as she made her way out, resolved in her steps. Sebastian actually had a hard time keeping up with the girl's speed and so did all the goons. The General though seemed to be able to keep up, though it was hardly surprising. He realized they were heading to a base that Moriarty had by the ports that Sebastian and his men had previously located. It was used mainly for low scale smuggling operations as far as they knew._

"_General McGurk!" One of the men, who seemed to be in charge rushed over as they approached. He came to a halt however, as he noticed the girl leading the group and seemed to turn a shade pale. "Ms. Gilbert – "_

"_Whatever the man had to say didn't seem to matter to the girl as she strode past without sparing him a glance. It almost seemed comical to Sebastian that this blue-eyed girl with the flowery backpack had all these powerful men quivering in their boots. Almost, but not quiet as he remembered how she looked at the library. There was something about the girl that told him she was trouble. He knew there must be a reason she was so high up Moriarty's chain of command._

_The clearing on the docks that were hidden between the cargos were littered with bodies which was clearly the result of a bloodbath that was probably spear headed by the kid (who couldn't be much older than the girl herself) who sat in the middle of it all. He had shaggy jet-black hair and was dressed in black robs like the rest of them. The most eye-catching feature that he had had to be his piercing red eyes that seemed to stare straight through to his soul as it landed on him. That combined with the blood he was dripping with made him look like a demon straight from hell. The others seemed to be keeping a safe distance from him, but the girl didn't even bat an eye before stalking over to him and stopping a couple of feats away._

"_Hello Sebastian Moran" He said with a creepy lopsided smirk, his eyes hovering over the sniper's forehead._

"_We're really not interested in your little party trick Beyond. "Gilbert said with a sigh; she almost sounded bored. "I heard you have been very naughty."_

"_They were week men." Beyond said, with a sneer. "They didn't even last a whole minute. The whole lot of them!"_

"_I had a plan Beyond." She tutted. "I needed them alive and now you have ruined it."_

"_They don't pose any threat to us." He huffed. _

_Gilbert let out a pearl of laughter before she let her backpack slide down and onto the ground. Her laugh had barely quietened before Sebastian saw her move. He had never seen anyone move so fast. In a second, she had struck Beyond so fast that he flew across the ground and hit hard against the cargo and fell with a grunt of pain. She had obviously used magic, but it was done so effortlessly that the sniper couldn't even sense it. _

"_Beyond, Beyond, Beyond ~" She sang, tutting at the boy who seemed to have trouble getting up. "What have I told you about following orders?"_

_She stalked over to boy and looked down at him. Sebastian could see the same look in her eyes that he had at the library and it was as unsettling as it was then. She seemed to have gotten a gun from nowhere (probably snagged from one of the underlings) that she played around with as she regarded the boy. "What shall I do with you?"_

_She pointed the gun to the boy's forehead before continuing ominously. "I have no tolerance for insubordination Beyond. And no matter what you think you are useless to me if you can't even control of your powers. Do you think I'm a fool? Its obvious that you lost your control and killed them. And you _actually_ thought you could stand there and lie to my face? No, no, no… That my dear, was a fatal mistake."_

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

_There was a collective gasp all around at the shots. Sebastian couldn't help but rush over, horrified at what happened but stopped in his track when he saw what had happened. _

_The bullets didn't seem to have reached its target after all. The boy seemed to have stopped it at the nick of time with a level of shield magic that Sebastian doubted even solders he had served with could manage._

"_What do you know…" The girl went on, throwing the weapon aside and turning around to walk past him. "There might be hope for you yet."_

_She stopped after a few steps to call over her shoulders. "Oh, and Beyond? Next time you pull something like that, it will be the last time, do you understand?"_

"_Yes" The goy gasped, out of breath. _

_The reply seemed to satisfy her as she resumed her stride. Sebastian hurried to catch up with her as the general trailed behind._

"_What was that all about?"_

"_This is the underworld Colonel. Did you think its all puppies and rainbows?"_

"_You were going to kill the boy?"_

"_Of course." She shrugged. "There are consequences for your actions."_

"_I think you're full of shit!" Sebastian scoffed. He was glad the General seemed to be trailed too far behind to express his outrage at his language to his precious master._

"_colorful language there Seby." She rolled her eyes._

"_You were never going to kill the boy."_

"_Oh?" She asked, seeming intrigued. "What makes you say that?"_

"_I'm a sorcerer and a snipper Gilbert. I specialized in bullets. I think I can tell when its going slower than its supposed to be?"_

"_Oh really?" She seemed delighted. "Well aren't you full of surprises!"_

"_So, I was right then, you really weren't going to kill him, were you?"_

"_Beyond might become a strong sorcerer one day; but that day is not today. Today, he's just a blade without a sheath. He needs to be put in line before he gets himself and everyone around him killed"_

"_You know, you sound way too wise for your age. It's creepy!"_

_She rolled her eyes at him before looking up at the sky. It was already dusk; Sebastian hadn't realized it was getting so late._

"_Would you like to call it a day?" She offered. "We could meet up at the library tomorrow. You look like you might need some rest."_

"_Meet up at the library?" He scoffed, shaking his head. "It almost sound like we're working on a school project or something!"_

"_If you would rather work through the night, I'd be happy to oblige." She replied sweetly._

"_No, no." He quickly. "I'll see you tomorrow."_

"_Good evening then Colonel!"_

_With a wave to the strange girl, the sniper was off. He had taken his usual way home, back to the small apartment that he could rent with his pension. He didn't feel like having anything for dinner but know that he shouldn't be missing a meal as he would surely get burnt out soon without the energy._

_He really should have known better than to not pay attention, but if asked he would probably blame it on being so tired; but whatever the case, he unwittingly walked into an obvious trapping spell. By the time he noticed it, it was too late. The trap was set well, by someone who knew what they were doing._

"_Well, well, well. If it isn't the little traitor!" He heard Seth call out as he and the other men walked out of the corner, they were probably hiding in wait._

"_Let me go guys. You're making a mistake."_

"_You struck a deal with the devil didn't you? How long have you been working for him?"_

"_I can explain." Sebastian tried. "Just let me go."_

"_No." Sean said, in resignation. Sebastian was really not liking where this is going. "You're one of them now. And once Moriarty gets his claws on someone, they never come out alive."_

_Liam was the one of the best fighters in their team, second only to him, so it was only logical that he was voted to end him. Sebastian could only watch horror struck as the wizard made his way over to him, his hand glowing bright with enough energy to burn the sorcerer alive._

"_Hello there!" They all looked up as they heard Gilbert's cheerful tone. And there she was, perched on a fence behind them._

"_You!" Liam snarled. "You're with Moriarty! Get her!"_

_Before they could make a move, she tutted before looking over to her left. It was hard to see in the dark but everyone's attention was soon captured by two glowing red orbs. If Sebastian hadn't seen the kid just minutes ago, he wouldn't have even been able to tell he was human (or rather a sorcerer, as he was earlier informed); he looked like a demon sent from hell. The air around seemed to buzz with magic as he stalked over and slowly stood in front of the girl. The sniper watched as sheer terror took over the group as their instinct told them this was a fight they wouldn't win. It was Liam, however, who voiced this concern and quickly informed the group retreat. With slightest hesitation, they were all quick to comply before running off into the darkness._

"_We really shouldn't be leaving loose ends, should we?" The girl pondered aloud as she walked past Beyond, who seemed to be waiting for his orders and faced the colonel as she did give the awaited order. "Go on then Beyond, after them."_

"_No wait!" Sebastian called out. Even though they had tried to kill him, they were his friends. And to be fair, he could understand how they had come to the discussion. "Please, let them be."_

"_Ah, and why exactly should I listen to you?" She asked with her eyebrows raised. "They have actively tried to meddle with our affairs, and I don't owe you any favors as you may agree. Tell me Colonel, why exactly should I listen to you?"_

_Sebastian huffed in frustration. In this moment, he was in a hopeless position. Though he wanted to help them, he could only stand and watch._

"_However,…" She continued thoughtfully. "If you were to join us and advise me as a – shall we say 'colleague'? – then I might take your advice and let the boys go. It doesn't have to be forever, of course; just long enough for you to replay the favor and help us find the book. Make it official and come work with. You can always quit after that, should you want to. And I'm sure you'd agree, its not like you have anywhere ese to go at this point. Your only friends are out to kill you!"_

_At that moment as she smirked down at him, he couldn't help but feel as if he had just been played. He couldn't explain it, but it felt like this whole thing was a set up. But he didn't have a choice. And to be frank he was a bit intrigued; maybe this was something he could give a try, after all._

"_Well, what do you say, Seby?"_

"_Fine!" He huffed. "Now if you could let me out?"_

"_Down Beyond!" She commanded him, earning herself a scowl in response. The boy was quick to comply though. Something about his behavior told the snipper that there was more to their relationship than meets the eye. The boy seems to have a lot of respect for her._

"_No what?" He asked as he was let out of the seal, effortlessly by the girl._

"_Now you meet the boss." She told him casually before stalking over to a waiting car at the end of the road. Sebastian frowned as he wondered when she had had the time to call for one._

"_Are you going to tell me you name now then?" He wondered once they were seated._

"_Sure, why not" She said, with a shrug. "You can call me Lyanna."_

"_Is _that _your real name?" He asked wryly_

"_Maybe." She replied with a smirk._

_The ride to wherever thy were going was short. They sat in silent as he brooded over the choice he had made, wondering if it was a colossal mistake. She on the other hand could be more at ease, as she had picked up her book again and seemed to be engrossed in it._

_Sebastian didn't know where he was expecting to be taken to meet the criminal mastermind, but he was slightly disappointed as they got down in front of a hotel. It was a posh hotel, no doubt about it, but still not nearly dark and dreary as he expected Moriarty's lair to be. _

_Lyanna walked with a purpose as she made her way past the reception. Sebastian followed close behind as she opened the door to a room – that was left unlocked – and stepped in after her. The room was bright and luxurious. _

"_Lya my darling~" A voice sung from the corner as an Irish man in an impeccable suit came to greet the girl. He strode over to them before scooping the girl up in his arms. She seemed to squirm uncomfortably through the long embrace before the man let her go with a pout. "You were gone for _far _too long"._

_It was only then that he seemed to notice the snipper behind her. _

"_And who do we have here?"_

"_This is Sebastian Moran." Lyanna introduced him before he had a chance to say a word._

"_Oh, so you're the one who leading the rebellion to have me killed then?"_

"_Yep" Lyanna shrugged. "I want you to recruit him."_

"_Really? "He said, letting out a laugh. "You want me to trust this man who had only recently been plotting my demise?"_

"_Yes" She replied with a grin. "I do."_

_Sebastian watched silently as Moriarty regarded him carefully. A knowing smirk formed on his face as his eyes let to find the girl again._

"_Of course. Whatever my princess wants!"_

Of course, back then the whole decision to join Moriarty had seemed like his own decision, but in time he had found out that it was hardly the case. He had been manipulated every step of the way Moriarty's demon prodigy. From the moment that she had planted the seed of doubt in his friend's mind to the moment that she had convinced him that his only choice was to join them, she had played him like a violin.

'Daddy's favorite, huh' he found himself thinking of Lyanna's comment. Something told him that was nowhere close to the truth.


End file.
